Google+ revives with Mobile First Design, Communities and Collections features

Despite its struggles with Google+, Google is relaunching its so-called social network in a whole new avatar.

After gradually bringing an end to its not so popular social network, Google is now planning to launch a revamped version of Google+. The new version gets a redesigned interface along with an emphasis to join interested groups, called “Communities”, and group posts by topics called ” Collections”. The search engine giant now wants to revive its network with a “focus around interests” and mobile-first design.

“Today, we’re starting to introduce a fully redesigned Google+ that puts communities and collections front and center. Now focused around interests, the new Google+ is much simpler. And it’s more mobile-friendly—we’ve rebuilt it across Web, Android and iOS so that you’ll have a fast and consistent experience whether you are on a big screen or small one,” said Google’s director of streams, Eddie Kessler.

The company says that it has spent a lot of time listening to the feedback from users about Google+, where it found that despite its shortcomings, users kept on flocking back to its network primarily because of two features – Communities and Collections. Google says that the former on an average has 1.2 million new users signing up every day while Collections, which was launched just five months back is growing at a much faster rate.

“Whether its the Nonfiction Addiction Community, where people can be found discussing the best in Crime or Travel storytelling, or the Watch Project Collection, where more than 40,000 people are following an unique watch hobbyist, these are the places on Google+ where people around the world are spending their time discovering and sharing things they love,” adds Kesler.

Hence, Google is essentially focusing on parts of the network that did or are still performing well, breaking down the network and building it back again. In an interview with TechCrunch, Google’s VP at Streams, Photos and Sharing Bradley Horowitz further adds that the company under Sundar Pichai’s leadership wants to keep the best of every product and peel out what’s not working.